This has created companies with the motive to expand, a clear-enough governance structure to allow for a strategy of expansion, and the currency with which to buy another exchange.

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Earlier in the week, Det Chief Insp John McVea said the PSNI were not looking at any of Mr Mackin's "previous involvement with police as the motive for this murder".

BBC: Fresh appeal over murder of Christopher Mackin in Belfast

If there was ever an argument for what is profoundly wrong with the profit motive in medicine, this must surely be that argument.

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To think about whether this power is at odds with the profit motive is another interesting and important thing.

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"This is an unusual event in this area and I think the motive lies more in close associations with Christopher Mackin and I don't think it involves any of his previous criminal activity, " he added.

BBC: Fresh appeal over murder of Christopher Mackin in Belfast

But even with that huge incentive, it could not persuade itself that pressing on with the acquisition made commercial sense (and this from a co-operative, whose profit motive is less acute than most PLCs).

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